


Golden

by WaryJMS



Series: Family [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Brotherly Affection, Brotp, Family, Fledgling Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 05:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2055432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaryJMS/pseuds/WaryJMS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel and Gabriel meet for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Golden

**Author's Note:**

> Supernatural has quite a strange version of angels' and archangels' wings; canonically, seraphs would be the only heavenly beings to have six wings, though several trains of thought see Gabriel with four wings or more. In Supernatural, most of the important angels have six or more wings (as Zachariah), while more ordinary ones (as Castiel) are portrayed to have the "standard" number of them.  
> Within Supernatural fandom, most of the fans tend to see Gabriel as a six winged, golden feathered Archangel. This is the Gabriel I chose to represent in this one shot. 
> 
> This is my second work in English and I may have filled this with errors, as I am not an expert at all (and I had a few doubts in some parts while writing, mostly about verbs, so help me and tell me if I got something wrong, I would love you, like, forever), so I'm sorry for any kind of grammatical disgrace you may find in the following story - and in these notes too, mind me.  
> I sadly don't own Supernatural, nor Gabriel, nor Castiel, nor an angel itself.

 

It had been during a stormy night on Earth that the Archangel Gabriel had first stumbled into the little fledgling. That was the period in which Lucifer had just started to strongly appreciate the gift his Father had given to him decades before, the Thunder, and, to Gabriel, it looked like the enjoyment in his older brother's actions could have hardly been pulled off if not in a few millennia. _Obviously_ , Gabriel thought. _He gets the Storm. I get a Horn._

Gabriel sighed to himself and raised the bigger of his golden wings above his wet figure, covering himself from the iced rain falling from the sky. The land in which he was standing was completely desert, despite its beauty, as Men had chosen the warmth of their comfiest caves over the freezing winter weather, while most of the Angels had retired in Heaven, as God had suggested to. He pretended, sometimes, that the distance he tended to set between his brothers and himself was obliged and moved by something else than his own will and rebellion. Of course, his mind wasn't so easy to be tricked, and he constantly fell in doubt and guilt. He always failed.  
Gabriel kept watching the horizon, tilting his head.  
It was only after a few silent moments that he felt the edge of his robe being gently pulled downwards, slightly revealing his shoulder, and his eyes trailed off to his leg, where a little fledgling stood. «I'm scared», he softly mumbled between his tears, tightly holding onto his knee.  
Gabriel smiled, reassuringly. «Hey, little one. What are you doing down here?», he asked, and he picked him up in his soft embrace. His tiny black wings trembled when Gabriel wrapped his arms around him, but the child kept silent. «Shouldn't you be with our brothers?», he gently insisted.  
The fledgling's brow furrowed. «I don't like to stay there», he whispered, as if just telling him those words were a sin. «I prefer to stay on Earth».  
Gabriel froze, shocked but not angry – because he reminded so much of himself, so much -, his only movement being his wings slightly flapping in astonishment.  
That made the little fledgling's day.  
He stared at them in awe, unconsciously committing an act of disrespect, but being too young to even realize that. Gabriel's six wings started glowing under his wondered eyes, making Gabriel's form shine with glory, their tips lounging towards their bodies in an act of renewed brotherly affect, as if in a tender feathered hug. «Why do you have six wings?», he asked and raised a hand to gingerly stroke the golden feathers near his shoulder blade, jealousy shimmering in his eyes.  
Gabriel grinned. «Because I am an Archangel».  
In the exact moment he finished pronouncing his rank, the little fledgling's eyes, already widened in wonder, suddenly grew bigger with terror, and he rushed to get out of the tender hug Gabriel had wrapped him in. «Are you Lucifer?», he asked, wings flapping in horror.  
And Gabriel's arms suddenly felt heavy, just as his brother's name had started to get out of the little angel's lips. His limbs grew heavy, his heart started running, his face suddenly whitened as if someone had painted him with chalk.  
Lucifer's farewell still burned into the center of his chest, nostalgia and sorrow still filling up his veins whenever his name was spoken or he heard the ramblings of his brothers about the current situation. Of course the fledgling would have thought he was Lucifer; they were just _so alike_. Same anguished soul, same beautiful wings, same instinct to rebel and to tend towards free will. And of course he would have feared him: nothing, nor the storm, nor the stories adolescent angels used to scare the fledglings, nor God's most terrible moment of anger could have been as scary as Lucifer himself. Even for Gabriel himself. And, anyway, Gabriel wasn't by any chance different.  
«I'm not», he whispers, a request of forgiveness shining into his growing tears. «I am Gabriel».  
 _The Monster. The Devil's favorite Brother, the one that secretly still loved him, even after he rebelled, just because he was his brother. The next demon. The Beast's closest friend._ These were the voices that ran after Gabriel every time he showed himself in Heaven: ramblings, shocked whispers, heads being shaken and angels covering the youngest fledgling's eyes. _How dare he show himself here, after all that happened? I thought he had left to stay with his brother. They say he approves him. What a monster. Father should send him down, straight to Hell._  
«Gabriel», the fledgling whispers.  
 _Wonder why he hasn't still done it. Father says he would never send him away, that he hasn't done anything if not try to forgive his brother. I say he should burn with him._  
«You're the good one».  
Gabriel frowned. «Sorry?». Never he had heard something like that, in the last few years. Never his second name had been anything than insults. And he, of course, blamed his brother for what he used his free will to; he had hated every choice he had made since the day he had left his Father and he had fell to Hell. Still, he would have never stopped loving him, whatever he had done, whatever he'd become. Because, for him, he would have always been his bigger brother.  
But none of the angels understood.  
Instead, the fledgling insisted. «You are not grumpy like Michael or Raphael. You are the good one. In my garrison, they say you can make the sun shine brighter than anyone can, even during the worst of Lucifer's storms».  
Gabriel's smile widened. «What's your name, little one?».  
«Castiel».  
«Nice to meet you, Castiel». And he stopped the rain from falling, holding the fledgling tighter. 


End file.
